


Spawn of the Devil

by barricadebastard



Series: Burrcules Drabbles [7]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Alternate Universe - Demons, Alternate Universe - Flower Shop, Alternate Universe - Magic, Demons, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-30
Updated: 2017-06-30
Packaged: 2018-11-21 16:35:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11361330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/barricadebastard/pseuds/barricadebastard
Summary: Hercules is a demon flowershop owner  who falls in love with a human gatekeeper.





	Spawn of the Devil

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TheInevitableSense](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheInevitableSense/gifts).



> so this is actually part of the hamilton fic exchange, but ao3 screwed up and so i don't think it'll show there but whatever here it is!
> 
> (@theinevitablesense)it's not as magic as i was hoping but it's burrcules and it's not completely human so?? here you go, i guess?? im sorry it's not very good

Hercules was a demon. 

Many people often assumed that this meant he was evil. He was  _ not.  _ He had a small flower-shop he had built himself, adopted stray cats and helped lost kids find their parents again. Just because he was the literal spawn of the devil, that didn't mean he had to be  _ mean.  _ He was confident enough in his identity that he didn't feel pressured to fill the expectations society had for him, and so he steadfastly ignored the “demons are inherently evil” stereotype and continued to live his life whilst taking all precautions necessary to ensure that humans did not find out about his existence.

Honestly, Hercules very rarely left the human world. It was calm, and monotonous, and there was a lot less drama than the demon realm. Ever since Aunt Cassie accidentally killed her cousin's pet, the family had been all in a flurry, with snide remarks and rude but ultimately harmless pranks being exchanged. Last Hercules had heard, Aunt Annabelle had thrown a glass of holy water in Uncle Jeremy's face after a screaming match. He hadn't returned since, for fear of being dragged into the drama. 

But yesterday, his father had asked him to come home for a serious talk. And, well, when Satan summoned you, you couldn't exactly refuse. So Hercules had closed up his little flower shop and travelled across a dimension to meet him, and was immediately dismissed with a “false alarm, never mind, go back to your flower arrangements”.

So yeah, Hercules had been a little annoyed, but his father had always been a tad eccentric so he brushed it off. On his way back to the human world, he encountered a vicious fight between two sisters involving lots of blood and a fair bit of fire, and so he make a quick diversion, stopping by at a portal he hadn't used before. 

On the plus side, the portal  _ did  _ transport him to the human world, just like his usual portal did.

On the down side… 

It led directly to a human’s house.

A young human, more specifically. Dark-skinned, bald-headed, and leaning over a laptop. 

How the heaven was Hercules supposed to explain to an oblivious human why he had appeared in the middle of a stranger's home? And so, despite not being fond of his intimidation tactic, Hercules did the only thing he could think of. 

He conjured fire. 

“Pitiful mortal,” he growled (turns out father's lessons had some use after all), “You will bow down to my will, or else I will crush your fragile human body into dust.” At the last word, he clenched his fist threateningly, and the fire that was licking its way up his body doubled. 

The human finally looked up. 

(He was rather handsome. Not that his looks were relevant to the fickle situation Hercules had found himself in. But still - the man was gorgeous.)

“Oh my god,” he said. He didn't sound afraid. He sounded… annoyed? “Could you not? Soot takes ages to get out of the carpet. So either quit the whole fire thing or you're paying for dry-cleaning.”

Hercules wasn't quite sure what to do next.

“Um,” he said. “Sorry.”

The (handsome) stranger gave a long-suffering sigh. “It's fine. There's a toll for using this portal, by the way.”

So. There was a human who knew about demons and portals. That was… interesting. At some point, Hercules would have to ask his father why he hadn't told him. As much as he loved the human world, he still missed being able to talk freely without worrying about slipping up or mentioning something he shouldn't have. 

“Oh. I… didn't know. How much?” Hercules asked, reaching into the back-pocket of his jeans to pull out his wallet. 

“Make me a cup of coffee and I'll let you off,” the man said, returning to his laptop and beginning to type again. His fingers flew across the keyboard with a grace and speed Hercules could only imagine of imitating. “I'm running on four hours of sleep and chronic anxiety, and I still need to give this assignment in.” 

“That doesn't sound healthy,” Hercules frowned. Now that the man had mentioned it, he could identify the pure exhaustion that weighed down his shoulders and the dark bags that hung under his eyes. “Are you sure you should be having coffee?” 

“Do you want to pass through or not?” the other man snapped with such viciousness that Hercules stepped back, alarmed. But then the viciousness bled away to reveal weariness, and the man sighed. “Sorry. I'm not feeling too great. Shouldn't have snapped.”

“It's okay,” Hercules replied, tone laced with an appropriate level of caution. “How do you want your coffee?”

“Two sugars, no milk.”

\----------------

A decent amount of confusion later (where the heaven was the sugar?!), Hercules returned to the stranger's living room with a large mug of steaming hot coffee. The man was concentrating on his laptop so hard that he didn’t even appear to notice Hercules hovering beside him hesitantly, holding the coffee. It wasn’t until Hercules coughed lightly that he looked up.

“Oh my god, thank you so much,” the man said, taking the mug from Hercules’ hands and inhaling deeply. The pure ecstasy on his face made Hercules a little uncomfortable - he felt like he was interrupting a private moment. Which was ridiculous. “You have no idea how badly I needed this.”

“I think I have some idea,” Hercules replied dryly. The man took a sip, scrunching up his nose in a strangely endearing fashion when he realised that the coffee was too hot, and then continued to try and drink it. “I’m Hercules, by the way.” 

“Aaron,” was the reply. “Sorry for not introducing myself earlier. I’m not in the most coherent of states at the moment, in case you couldn’t tell.” 

“Is a single assignment really that important?” Hercules wondered aloud. He knew he was probably crossing a boundary or two, considering he was lecturing a virtual stranger on his health decisions. Still, although it had never been something he experienced, he knew that many college students (and that was what Aaron looked like) were overworked and often exhausted. If he couldn’t change the schooling system, he could at least help Aaron, right? 

Except Aaron was looking at him strangely now. “Have you ever been to college?” 

Hercules shook his head.

“I figured.”

But Hercules was determined to do  _ something  _ to help the man. “What’s your professor’s name?” 

Aaron’s brow furrowed, and his eyes were narrowed in suspicion. Hercules took the opportunity to note that Aaron had rather beautiful eyes. “Why?” 

“I’ll make sure he lets you give in the assignments late,” Hercules said confidently. It was something he had done before. Elizabeth, his ex-girlfriend, had always been given shit by her boss at her internship, and Hercules would make frequent trips in demon form to whisper ‘suggestions’ that the man believed he was thinking himself. Coercion was a power all demons possessed, and the ability to whisper into the hearts and minds of humans was a convenient one.

“Please don’t show up in his living room on fire,” Aaron said in a long-suffering tone. Hercules didn’t entirely blame him. But, despite his facade, the corner of his mouth was twitched into a little grin - the first that Hercules had seen so far - and the demon was struck by a sudden desire to see more of those smiles, whether that meant aiding and abetting unhealthy coffee consumption or manipulating his professors into being slightly more lenient. 

“That’s reserved for you, sweetheart,” Hercules teased. The endearment slipped out of his mouth before he could think, and it wasn’t until Aaron froze that he realised what he was said. Oops. Maybe he should have waited until at least their second meeting before he pulled out the pet names. 

Except Aaron didn’t look as though he was…  _ opposed _ to the word, per se. He seemed flustered, sure, embarrassment rolling off him practically in waves, but he looked like he was fighting back a smile. 

“Well,” Aaron said finally. “I’m honoured. But maybe don’t burst into flames on our first date this Saturday yeah?” 

How had Hercules lost track of the conversation so fast? 

“But we didn’t plan a date for this Saturday,” he pointed out, feeling more than slightly bewildered. Aaron sighed, but it was an endearing sigh.

“This is me asking you out on a date this Saturday,” Aaron explained patiently.

Oh. Well. 

“This Saturday it is, then,” Hercules said lamely. 

He hightailed it out of the house, with the sound of Aaron’s laughter ringing in his ears.

* * *

It was Saturday. Hercules and Aaron were sitting opposite each other at a desserts shop, sipping milkshakes they would probably never be able to finish. Hercules’ was mint and chocolate, and he had been outraged that Aaron found the combination disgusting.

“ _ No one  _ hates mint and choc!” he was saying, a hand waving in the air to emphasise his point. Aaron seemed amused by his antics, but still unconvinced. “ _ Everyone  _ loves mint and choc! Or, at the very least, can accept that it is one of the top ten flavour combinations in the history of this universe.” 

“Well, ‘everyone’ isn’t best friends with Satan too, but I guess I’ve always defied expectations,” Aaron joked with a completely straight face. An elderly woman sitting at the table next to them with five children shot him a mildly scandalous look before quickly looking away. 

“How  _ do  _ you know Dad anyway?” Hercules asked. It was a question that had been burning at the forefront of his mind since he had appeared in Aaron’s living room. Humans weren’t supposed to be at all aware of the existence of neither Satan nor his demons. 

Aaron shrugged. “We’re friends. I was the one who set him up with your mother.” 

Hercules’ mother… a human who had befriended a gatekeeper and was then introduced to Satan. 

“You’re a gatekeeper,” Hercules realised. 

Gatekeepers controlled portals, and stopped demons from wandering into the human world without a valid reason. Most demons had yet to master the art of subtlety, and humans would have found out about them within days. Hercules was lucky enough to be allowed to move freely between the worlds when he wished, but that was only because his father understood how much he preferred the human realm to the demon one. 

“You  _ are  _ a smart one,” Aaron teased. Hercules huffed. Somehow, he couldn't bring himself to feel annoyed about Aaron's almost-smug tone - it seemed everything about the man was too endearing for him to be able to muster up anything other than fondness. “Yeah, I became a gatekeeper because Satan offered me immortality and a full ride scholarship. I refused the immortality recently though.”

Which meant that Aaron had been given the option to never die, took the option… only to realise he would rather die. Strange, but Hercules wasn’t going to push on such a morbid topic.

“So why the hell are you going to college?” Hercules asked. “You could live off portal toll fees alone!” 

Surprisingly, Aaron laughed. “It's a funny story. It all started when…”

With their light-hearted banter and quick wit (the latter of which was more of Aaron's territory), two hours passed faster than the two expected. They would have kept talking longer, if only the coffee shop they had been inhabiting hadn't begun to close up for a lunch break. Hercules couldn’t help but feel a little surprised by how easily the conversation flowed, how comfortable he felt around Aaron. Part of him wondered if it was just the liberating feeling of being able to talk freely about who he was, without worrying about letting something slip. Either way, he found himself enjoying Aaron’s company for more than he had expected, in a way he hadn’t experienced in centuries. 

“I think the waitress hates us,” Aaron commented casually, the corner of his lips twisting up into a barely-there smirk. “Did you see the dirty looks she gave us when it got close to closing-time?” 

“Can’t say I blame her. Customers that force you to work longer because they refuse to leave are a curse to this world,” Hercules joked. He  _ may  _ have exaggerated a little for the purpose of making Aaron smile, but who could blame him when the other man was so beautiful? 

“You work in a coffee shop?” 

Hercules shook his head. “Nah, too many obnoxious customers. I own a flower shop.” Most people Hercules met weren’t too enthusiastic about hearing about his job, and, at most, were shocked to find a guy that looked like him (big, black, hoodie-wearing, and what the media loved to stereotype as a mindless, aggressive thug) working in a place as delicate as a flower shop. But Aaron made an interested sound, and raised an eyebrow as though waiting for the other man to continue. 

So he did.

“I just… Sometimes I feel like flowers are one of the best things in the world, you know? And it sounds sappy, I know, but they’re just so perfect for everything. Dates, family, funerals, celebrations. And there’s something really cathartic about spending hours surrounded by so much colour and beauty. I-” He cut himself off. He knew that, all too often, he got too excited by flowers, and often his borderline obsession tended to weird people out. But Aaron didn’t look weirded out. His smile was fond and soft and beautiful. Hercules wondered what it would be like to kiss those lips.

He pushed the thought away. Although he had just met Aaron, his friendship with the other man was already too valuable. As much as he loved the human world, constantly hiding who he was became cumbersome, and he could feel it wearing on him after centuries. Here was a human who knew about demons and didn’t care, a human who didn’t see him as a monster, a human who could be trusted. 

Hercules was determined to make this perfect.

* * *

Two days later, Aaron was lying in bed, staring blankly at his phone. Hercules had given him his number, but now he had a different worry. What was he supposed to do now? They had their first date, and it had gone fantastically well, with the conversation flowing easily and the day ending with a chaste kiss against Hercules’ cheek. But now he wanted to see the other man again.

What was the protocol for this? His education had always been his priority, but now Aaron had no idea how to actually date someone. Was two days too early to text Hercules? Was calling too intimate? Was it too soon to arrange to meet up again? Aaron didn’t want to google these questions like a pre-teen in their first relationship trying not to seem too desperate, but… well, that description fit Aaron uncomfortably well.

He sighed, locking his phone screen for the billionth time. Maybe he should just wait for Hercules to make the first move. 

No sooner had he thought this, his phone pinged with a notification. 

_ ‘Since I picked the coffee shop last time, you should pick the next date :)’ _

(The man used smiley faces in his texts, and Aaron didn’t even bat an eyelid. Jeez, he was in  _ way  _ too deep.)

Could demons read minds? Aaron didn’t think so. Satan never mentioned it. Maybe Aaron’s longing had taken physical form to slap Hercules across the face and demand that he paid Aaron some attention before he exploded from overthinking. 

But how Hercules knew that Aaron had been trying to find a way to schedule their next date was irrelevant. What was important now was that now the ball was in Aaron’s court, and he had no idea where their next date should be. He ruled out the park, the museum, a dinner date, and the cinema before an idea came to him. One of the most memorable parts of their first date was how Hercules’ eyes lit up when he talked about flowers.

_ ‘I’d love to see your flower shop’ _

Hercules and Aaron had their first kiss in a small, crowded flower shop, surrounded by every colour of the rainbow. And as their lips connected, Aaron knew he'd changed his mind about Satan's offer.

**Author's Note:**

> i hope you liked it?? im so sorry it's not better 
> 
> tumblr is hhhercules-mulligan, drop burrcules prompts in my inbox and i'll write a drabble for you (honestly im begging you, it doesn't even have to be specific, it's just easier to write when i know there's someone waiting for it)


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